The OTT Fellowship is a five-month collaborative working programme. It is designed for current and promising think tank leaders who are committed to undergoing a process of personal and professional development, and who want to bring about change within their organisations.
The 2022 Fellowship runs August-December.
The OTT Fellowship 2022 is kicking off!!
9 thinktankers embarked on an exciting five-month programme to work on a specific challenge or project with expert mentors and peers.
What to expect
The OTT Fellowship programme draws on adult learning theories. It encourages and facilitates a combination of independent learning and critical reflection, task-oriented learning, learning from experts and peer-learning.
- Personal project
Over the five-months you will work on a specific issue or challenge. This could be anything from developing a personal or organisational MEL framework, communications strategy or research plan, to setting up a new think tank. At the end of the Fellowship, you will produce a report with recommendations, and an article to share learning with other think tankers.
- Peer-mentoring
You will attend monthly group sessions with On Think Tanks to share experiences and lessons, present progress and give and receive feedback from peers.
- Expert sessions
We will host monthly sessions with experts on different topics, depending on the interests and projects of the 2022 Fellowship cohort.
- Engagement
We create opportunities for and support you to share your work with your organisation and the OTT community via our platform.
- Access to resources
You’ll have access to all the OTT School resources covering a range of topics such as think tank governance, management, funding and finance, policy research agendas, communications, monitoring, evaluation and learning.
- 8-10 hours per month
Over five-months, we expect you to dedicate 8-10 hours per month to attend sessions, meetings and work on your personal project. Support from your organisation to take part in the Fellowship is important.
- Graduate and join the OTT School Alumni
To graduate you must have attended 80% of sessions and have shared learning with your organisation and/or OTT wider community – such as through an article via the OTT platform. You will then join the OTT School Alumni – a community of thinktankers from around the world. As well as early-bird invitations to OTT conferences, Alumni are regularly invited to speak at our events, write articles for the platform, and to join us on projects.
The OTT Fellowship was a life-changing experience – both professionally and personally.
Prior to joining, as an early mid-career professional at a think tank in Pakistan, I was stuck with no clear understanding of the skills that I needed to develop to move up the career ladder. I lacked clarity on my work’s purpose, and why it was not as impactful as I wished it to be. OTT provided me with the mentorship and advice. It connected me to a network from across the world that was supportive, insightful, and eager to learn. It gave me the confidence to take the responsibility for my learning and development, and the practical ways to do so. I wish there would be more programmes like this one that is so invested in developing young thinktankers around the world!’
Fayyaz Yaseen, 2017 OTT Fellow and Director Accountability Lab Pakistan.
Apply for 2022
Key dates
- Applications close 18 July 2022
- Fellowship runs August – December 2022
To apply you will:
- have at least five years working in a think tank as a researcher, communicator, administrator, manager or human resources professional
- have support from senior managers to put lessons learned into practice within your organisation
- be proficient in English, as this will be the working language of the Fellowship
- be able and willing to work collaboratively with others
- have a personal or organisation issue or challenge to work on
- have already attended an OTT School or are part of the Southern Voice network **
- are willing and keen to share Fellowship learning with others, such as writing articles for the OTT platform.
- be ready to actively participate and commit 8-10 hours per month.
The Fellowship is free but spaces are limited and require an active commitment and participation from Fellows.
**If you don’t fulfil these criteria but still think you can make a strong case on why you should take part, please write an email to [email protected]
If you would like to receive information about the School for Thinktankers and OTT Fellowship, register your interest.